[1/2] Inner Drive: From Underdog to Global Company (Category Management)

In this book, Arsen Tomsky talks in the first person about his path from a modest start in Yakutia to the formation of the company InDrive, which now operates almost all over the world and is the second ride sharing company, if you focus on the number of downloads of mobile applications. The book addresses the following main topics:

• The author's personal journey Arsene talks a lot about his personal experiences overcoming personal problems, including stuttering and family problems.
• Evolution of business Arsene puts a lot of emphasis on the meaningful development of companies, not just the pursuit of profit. This can be seen in the part about the creation of the company and the portal Sinet. (Sakha Internet)InDriver, which eventually became InDrive.
• Leadership philosophy Arsene stresses the importance of building a cohesive leadership team based on kindness, openness and integrity, and maintaining a clear global vision with challenging goals. The fight against injustice as a driving force of innovation.

It is interesting that I often hear similar theses about leadership or business development, but for a long time I try to look not at what they say, but at what they do. In this regard, Arsene’s story contains many reference points that show that these theses are more than just conversations. If we go back to the book itself, it consists of five parts, which are named in accordance with the stages of Arsene’s evolution from programmer to developer. I find it ironic that the cycle closed and Arsene, going from a programmer, came to the developer in the broadest sense of the word, when many companies simply renamed the programmer position to developer in the fashion wave:) Let’s look at what was in each part.

1) Programmer (programmer) In This part is about the early years of the author in Yakutsk. 1980-x, including: His upbringing in a family of scientists and early acquaintance with academic literature The key moment when he received a programmable all-terrain toy in Leningrad Developing his passion for programming and computers Life during the difficult economic times of Russia

2) Freelancer (freelancer) Here Arsene talks about his first attempts to make money on programming, providing private services as a programmer. An interesting story about automating banking processes and doing small jobs. But here I liked the part about the collision with the law for driving without a license and a short time in prison. (cc). After that, Arsene decided to behave in such a way as to avoid clashes with representatives of law enforcement agencies:)

3) Entrepreneur (entrepreneur) Here, Arsene talks about his journey through business challenges and growth: Surviving the financial crisis and losing B2B contracts Sakha Internet with limited resources, as well as the portal ykt.ru Early difficulties with funding and team building Development of its first successful enterprises Assistance to Yakutsk University in obtaining state grants for the development of technologies and the removal of Arsen from their implementation in the future The personal crisis that led Arsene to the next stage

The end of the book review will be in next post.

P.S. By the way, this book got into list McKinsey’s annual book recommendations 2024 year.

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